:...I know how popular police
community support officers are in Swansea East, and I know people
who their first point of call when they've got a problem is to go
to the local PCSO, many of whom they see walking up and down the
street. Many of the older generation will remember when we had
watch committees responsible for policing in Wales. During most
of the twentieth century, policing was a local government
function controlled by the watch committee of the relevant
country or, in the case in Swansea, Cardiff, Merthyr and Newport,
county borough council. We then moved from local watch committees
to the police committees, with South Wales
Police covering, for example, the whole of Glamorgan,
but with very little control over the local police force. The
replacement of police sergeants by police commissioners is the
only major structural change that's taken place in policing since
1960. South Wales, Dyfed-Powys, North Wales and Gwent have been
in their current form, with minor amendments in local government
reorganisation in 1996, since the 1960s...
:...This is true of the
justice system too, as well as the police. Recent research by Dr
Jones shows that people are five times more likely of being
imprisoned if they are black, as compared to white people. And
sentences for black, Asian and mixed race people are
significantly higher than they are for white people, on average.
And the deaths of Mohamud Hassan and Mouayed Bashir, after they
came into contact with South Wales
Police, continue to pose serious questions...
:...Whatever says, it does have the
support of police officers at every level. Look at the brief,
, we had from the Police
Federation, the shift that's happened since the Silk commission,
they are now—. Even though still in neutral stance, the question
they're asking now is, 'Why shouldn't it be devolved?' It's a
huge shift, and it has the support of every PCC, and, despite
their neutral stance, the support of every chief constable in
Wales. Peter Vaughan, the highly respected former chief constable
of South Wales
Police has been a firm advocate of the devolution of
policing.
Now, the cross-border issue that has raised once again—it is
incredible. This is the same party that last week voted in favour
of St David's Day being a bank holiday in Wales, separate
to England. Just imagine the chaos: a bank holiday in Wales
on 1 March and not in England. Look at the cross-border chaos
that would create. And, gosh, what about Luxembourg? How do they
survive with their own police force?
Now, as , as Mike Hedges, as has reminded us, policing is
not an island, it's not isolated—it's completely aligned with
sectors that are devolved to this place. Every 13 minutes,
South Wales
Police receives a report relating to a mental health
issue, and of those incidents, which police officers have to
attend, only 4 per cent require the exercise of police powers...
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